Hendrik Kraay

Dr. Hendrik Kraay

PhD
Pronouns: He/Him/His

Positions

Contact information

Phone number

Office: +1 (403) 220-6410

Background

Educational Background

Ph.D., History, University of Texas at Austin, 1995

M.A., History, University of Toronto, 1989

B.A., International Relations and History, University of Toronto, 1988

Research

Areas of Research

Popular Festivals in Nineteenth-Century Brazil

Funded by a 2015 SSHRC Insight Grant, this ongoing research examines the changes in pre-Lenten celebrations in nineteenth-century Brazil, including the repression of rowdy and “barbaric” entrudo and the emergence of “civilized” carnival. It focuses on both the forms of celebration and discourses about appropriate public comportment and representations of the nation. A monograph on these celebrations is in progress.

Civic Rituals and Commemoration of Independence in Brazil

Funded by two SSHRC Standard Research Grants, this project focuses on the different ways in which nineteenth-century Brazilians of all classes in Rio de Janeiro and Salvador (Bahia) commemorated the country’s independence and debated the nature of the Brazilian state and membership in the nation. The results of this project include monographs published in 2013 (Day of National Festivity in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1823-1889) and 2019 (Bahia's Independence: Popular Politics and Patriotic Festival in Salvador, Brazil, 1824-1900) and numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. A third monograph on the twentieth-century Dois de Julho festival (the commemoration of independence in the state of Bahia) is in progress.

Military History of Brazil

This research focused on the social history of the armed forces in independence-era Brazil (the subject of Race, State, and Armed Forces in Independence-Era Brazil: Bahia, 1790s-1840s [2001], recruitment, and Brazil’s participation in the Paraguayan War (the subject I Die with My Country: Perspectives on the Paraguayan War, coedited in 2004 with Thomas L. Whigham). Nova História Militar do Brasil (coedited with Celso Castro and Vitor Izecksohn, 2004) was a pioneering work in the new military history of Brazil.

Slavery and Afro-Brazilian History

The primary focus of this research area has been the participation of free, freed, and enslaved black men in nineteenth-century Brazil’s armed forces, including the recruitment of enslaved men for service in the country’s nineteenth-century wars. Afro-Brazilian Culture and Politics (edited, 1998) examined the interaction of culture and politics in Afro-Bahian history, while more recent work has focused on slave culture and the manumission of “white” slaves.

Popular Politics in Nineteenth-Century Brazil

Through the analysis of civic rituals, popular royalism, Afro-Brazilian participation in Brazil’s independence movement, and rebellions, publications in this area demonstrate that the nineteenth-century Brazilian lower classes included numerous politically-active citizens. Their political engagement profoundly shaped the Brazilian imperial regime (1822-1889).

Courses

Course number Course title Semester
HTST 487 LEC 01 Brazilian History since 1500 Winter 2023
HTST 647 SEM 01 01 Topics in Latin American History Winter 2022

Awards

  • Fellow, Royal Society of Canada. 2022
  • Calgary Institute for the Humanities Annual Fellowship and Inaugural Naomi Lacey Memorial Fellow, Calgary Institute for the Humanities. 2018
  • Distinguished Fellow Award, Canadian Association for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. 2018
  • Internationalization Award, Faculty of Arts, University of Calgary. 2018
  • Warren Dean Prize, Conference on Latin American History. 2014
  • James Alexander Robertson Memorial Prize, Conference on Latin American History. 2010
  • Cavaleiro, Ordem de Rio Branco, President of the Republic of Brazil. 2004
  • James Alexander Robertson Memorial Prize, Conference on Latin American History. 1993

Publications

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